Attention: There is a current proposal to drop Visual Studio 2005 support in OpenSim by end of May. Visual Studio 2008 will still be supported. If you have strong opinions on the matter, use the mailing lists to make your voice heard.

OpenSimulator is a 3D Application Server. It can be used to create a virtual world which can be accessed through a variety of clients, on multiple protocols. OpenSimulator allows you to develop your world using the technologies you feel work best - we've designed the software to be easily extendable through loadable modules to build completely custom configurations. OpenSimulator is released under a BSD License, making it both open source, and commercially friendly to embed in products.

Out of the box, OpenSimulator can be used to simulate a virtual world similar to Second Life™ (including client compatibility). Other environments, protocols and features are supported via add on modules. For a list of available modules check out our forge site.

The ability to create content real time in the environment using in world building tools. What you see is what you get.

In world application development using a number of different languages, including LSL/OSSL, C#, JScript and VB.NET

Using OpenSimulator

The fastest way to get started using OpenSimulator is to create an account on OSGrid, then download the Hippo Viewer or Linden Lab's Second Life viewer (amongst others) to connect to OSGrid. This process should take no longer than 10 minutes, and will give you a flavor for what OpenSimulator is like.

You can also easily connect to any one of the many public grids on the internet.

Create an OpenSimulator related project hosted on the Forge or elsewhere on the web. In the forge there are over a dozen registered projects, and it's a great way to further extend the OpenSimulator community.

Participate to open content creation for OpenSimulator. More details at Artist Home.